Microsoft appears close to releasing the cloud-based Office 365 version of its ever-popular suite of Office applications for Mac and iOS devices, according to several reports. For Office 365 subscribers, this news is a huge boon, as it would allow them to use the software on a greater variety of devices.

A Microsoft representative admitted to MacWorld that a new Office for Mac, which hasn’t been updated since 2011, was indeed in the works for this year, and Reuters’ sources say that full iPhone and iPad versions are finished and are merely awaiting the greenlight from new Microsoft boss Satya Nadella.

Microsoft Office Web app

As Microsoft struggles to regain its solid footing in a rapidly-changing tech world, its efforts with Office 365 are crucial to the company’s future, and the decision to push Office 365 to platforms other than Microsoft’s own is a gambit.

On the one hand, it only seems to make sense to offer Office 365 on every possible platform. The more users the better, and of course when individuals can run the software on a multitude of platforms, the suite is a much easier sell--people generally don’t want to pay for an Office 365 subscription for their PC yet be unable to run it on their iPad. Further, if Microsoft fails to recognize that Office 365 must be available everywhere on everything, the company is demonstrating that it doesn’t understand the cloud.

Microsoft Office mobile

On the other hand, there’s an argument to be made that keeping Office 365’s full functionality on Microsoft-only platforms will help ensure more sales of Windows machines, which frankly seems like the bigger risk.

Essentially, Microsoft has to decide whether or not Office 365 is compelling enough to sway users toward its platforms; if that gamble were to fail, though, Microsoft could lose a lot more than just a chunk of market share. Fortunately for Microsoft and its future, it appears as though the company is wisely making Office 365 available to more consumers.